Speech–language pathologists often lack preparation for palliative care practice and this lack of training can lead to poor outcomes for patients. Lack of training can additionally lead to burnout and compassion fatigue in clinicians. Careful implementation of training is necessary to increase the knowledge base for palliative practice and careful attention must also be paid to the emotional component of end-of-life care. The history and current practice of palliative care education across health care disciplines are examined. Finally, a pilot study evaluating a course module on palliative and end-of-life care for speech–language pathologist graduate students is presented. Results from the pilot indicate that students improved both their knowledge and comfort related to issues of end-of-life care topics. In addition, students responded positively to the opportunity to learn about the topic and the instructional strategies used within the course module.

Purpose: Lack of preparation for working with patients near the end of life (EoL) can lead to poor outcomes for patients and burnout for clinicians. Additionally, graduate students must also receive preparation in professional communication skills necessary for family and interprofessional interactions. Simulation provides an opportunity to practice and demonstrate these skills in a safe environment. This study examined student performance and perceptions following a simulation of clinical communication in the context of an EoL care (EoLC) conference discussion. Method: By utilizing a formative simulation with standardized patients, students demonstrated skills associated with navigating an EoLC conference discussion. The supervising educators and standardized patients evaluated students on their clinical communication and debriefing skills through rubrics. Students also provided feedback on the simulation experience. Results: Results from this simulation indicated that most students demonstrated effective clinical communication skills. Judgments from educators and standardized patients corroborate students' skill demonstration in the areas of content delivery, delivering compassionate care, communicating evidence, representing their roles, and reflection. Students struggled more in the areas of terminology use and using summary and validation skills. Student feedback about the simulation was resoundingly positive. Students remarked how the simulation advanced their learning, helped them reflect on their clinical communication skills, and provided them with exposure to fragile medical patients. Conclusion: This study provides an example of a high-fidelity replicable simulation that can be implemented to measure and encourage student skill development in clinical communication and EoLC.

Simulation practices are growing in both popularity and necessity within speech pathology programs. Simulation use can serve to not only minimize client risk but to increase student confidence and competence prior to patient contact, particularly with low incidence or medically fragile patients. This paper describes and reflects on four individual simulation experiences within one graduate speech language pathology program and their outcomes. The use of both simulated patients and mannequin training resulted in an increase in students' perception of knowledge and confidence in their clinical skills with medical patients.